Dick Pacific wins $176M contract

The construction firm will build a U.S. Navy facility in Wahiawa, starting this summer

An affiliate of Honolulu contracting firm Dick Pacific has won a $176 million contract to build an operations center in Wahiawa for the U.S. Navy.

The contract awarded to Shaw-Dick Pacific LLC is only the first part of a deal worth $318 million in total, with an additional $142 million to be appropriated by the government in fiscal year 2008.

The contract with the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific is the largest to date for Dick Pacific, which has operated in Hawaii since 1939.

The company will need more than 500 workers for the project, it said in a statement, but did not indicate how many of those would be new hires. It also said it expected to employ about 40 local contractors to support the work.

"Dick Pacific is pleased to have been awarded a project of this importance and looks forward to working immediately with the Navy," said Gerry Majkut, vice president and general manager.

The new Hawaii Regional Security Operations Center is expected to go up on the U.S. Navy's 700-acre Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Pacific. Construction is scheduled to begin in early summer, with an expected completion date of fall 2010.

It will measure about 250,000 square feet when completed, offering a two-story operations and data center facility which will house a command center, briefing center, data analysis section, administrative offices and video-teleconferencing rooms.

A visitor center, warehouse building and additional infrastructure are also part of the contract.

The center will focus on national security intelligence needs to defend the homeland as well as various intelligence requirements for the U.S. Pacific Command, Central Command and Special Operations Command Pacific.